[D66] The euro crisis and the lessons of the Weimar Republic

[Antid Oto]

The euro crisis and the lessons of the Weimar Republic
3 October 2012

In the final years of the German Weimar Republic, between 1930 and 1932, 
the austerity program implemented by the Brüning government in response 
to the flight of capital and the world economic crisis precipitated the 
catastrophe that followed: mass unemployment, Nazism and war. For years, 
this has been regarded as evident and was taught in schools. However, 
the present developments in Europe show that the ruling class is not 
capable of learning from history.

In recent days, the Greek and Spanish governments have agreed to 
austerity measures that far exceed the emergency measures implemented by 
the Brüning government.

Even though Greece has been in recession for six years, the Greek 
government has agreed a further round of austerity amounting to €11.5 
billion. According to the government’s own calculations, economic output 
will sink by 25 percent compared to 2008—a staggering decline. Most of 
the cuts are being made in pensions, health and social expenditure, 
impacting the poorest layers of the population.

Last week, the Spanish cabinet cut the budget for 2013 by an additional 
€40 billion. The five austerity packages passed by the Rajoy government 
in the last year now add up to €127 billion. This equates to a quarter 
of the annual national budget.

For broad sections of the population, these measures spell naked 
poverty. Nevertheless, for the European Union and, above all, the German 
government, they do not go far enough. The EU, with Germany leading the 
way, are pressing for additional cuts, even if these produce a social 
catastrophe.

The social attacks are not limited to the highly indebted countries of 
southern Europe. An enormous transfer of wealth toward those at the top 
is taking place in the richer countries of the North. Private fortunes 
in Germany have risen by €1.4 trillion since the outbreak of the 
economic crisis five years ago, while poverty at the opposite pole of 
society is spreading like a cancer.

In light of the historical experiences of the last century, such a 
course might seem utter madness. Nevertheless, it is supported by all of 
the establishment parties, whether they call themselves conservative, 
liberal, Green, social democratic or “left.”

Social democratic parties like the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) 
under Gerhard Schröder, Britain’s Labour Party under Tony Blair, and, 
more recently, Greece's PASOK under George Papandreou and Spain's PSOE 
under José Zapatero have championed the destruction of social conditions 
and all of the past gains of the working class. The same is happening in 
France under the Socialist Party following the recent election of 
François Hollande as president.

This alone shows that the present developments have deep objective 
roots. Marx was right when he wrote that “the history of all hitherto 
existing society is the history of class struggles”. It is not reason 
and noble ideals that determine the politics of the ruling class, but 
social interests.

In the past thirty years, fundamental socioeconomic changes have 
occurred that make a return to the policy of social compromise 
impossible. The globalisation of production has transcended national 
borders and the national market within the framework of which the trade 
unions had negotiated in behalf of compromise between the classes. 
National industries have been confronted with merciless global 
competition, driving each national bourgeoisie to attack its “own” 
working class.

During the stock market boom of the 1990s, the financial sector largely 
detached itself from the real process of production and grew 
increasingly parasitic. Annual salaries and bonuses amounting to tens of 
millions, which would have been inconceivable thirty years ago, are now 
the norm at banks and corporations. An insatiable financial aristocracy 
has arisen, which, in the name of “saving the euro”, is attacking 
without restraint all of the social gains won by the working class over 
the last 65 years. The political parties and the media lie at its feet.

Without breaking the power of the financial aristocracy, a catastrophe 
cannot be avoided. What is called for is a social revolution. The major 
banks and corporations must be expropriated and placed under democratic 
control, the profits of the speculators must be confiscated, and huge 
fortunes must be massively taxed.

Such a radical social change is possible only through the mobilisation 
of the working class through the masses’ independent intervention into 
politics. The conditions for this are developing rapidly. Anger is 
visibly rising. The number of strikes, protests and demonstrations is 
clearly increasing, although the unions do everything they can to 
isolate and strangle them. Opinion polls find deep hostility towards the 
banks, even among sections of the middle class.

The unions and the social democratic parties fear such a mobilisation 
more than anything else. These bureaucratic apparatuses have long since 
severed any connection to the interests of working people. Their 
operatives belong to the ranks of the well-off middle class and are 
linked to the banks, corporations and governments by a thousand threads. 
They reject the socialist transformation of society and see their task 
as suppressing the class struggle and defending capitalism.

This also applies to parties such as Germany’s Left Party, France’s Left 
Front and Greece’s Coalition of the Alternative Left (SYRIZA). They 
attempt to contain the radicalisation of the working class and youth by 
making limited criticisms of capitalism and encouraging illusions in its 
potential for reform. At the same time, they collaborate closely with 
the unions in isolating and betraying working class struggles.

They simultaneously prepare to enter government in the event that 
control slips away from the other bourgeois parties.

Such “left-wing” governments would act only to prop up capitalism by 
brutally suppressing social resistance. Moreover, the political 
disappointment generated by such right-wing politics in “left” garb 
works to the advantage of far-right tendencies, as seen in the election 
results for the National Front of Marine Le Pen in France and the rise 
of Fidesz and Jobbik in Hungary.

The building of a new, independent party of the working class that 
fights for an international socialist programme is the most urgent 
political task of the day.

Peter Schwarz

http://wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/pers-o03.shtml